Engine-cylinder structure



April 12, 1927. A LLEO ET AL ENGINE CYLINDER STRUCTURE Filed Jan. 5 1921 Ill) Patented Apr. 12, 1927.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERTO LLEO AND CLAUDIO BARADAT, OF BARCELONA, SPAIN; SAID BARADAT ASSIGNOB TO SAID LLEO.

ENGINE-CYLINDER STRUCTURE.

Application filed January 15, 1921. Serial No. 437,483.

The invention relates to certainimprovements in tour cycle internal combustion engines ot the multi-cylinder, balanced-piston type in which the parts are for the most part disposed symmetrically on oppos1te s des of a transverse medial plane and 111 whlch the sets of pistons on each side are connected through a wabble-plate mechanism to trans late the reciprocatory movement of the pistons of the adjacent set into rotary movement of a centrally disposed driven shaft.

The present disclosure constitutes a development of the subject-matter contalned in our Patents, Nos. 1,355,484l, dated October 12, 1920; 1,355,485, dated October 12, 1920; and 1, l79,9l8, dated January 8,1924.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a commercially pertected and simplified form of engine of the class described, which will develop relatively h gh horse power and at the same time Wlll teature compactness of construction and a CllS- position of parts facilitating their confinement within a much smaller space than is usually occupied by engines of similar iorse power.

Other objects incidental to this general desidcratum are to provide for economy in the space utilized to provide for the minimixing of the number of necessary parts and the correlation of these parts so as to utilize all of the space within the limited outlines of the engine.

Another general object of the invention is to provide a casing construction tormed oi parts which can be made up economically largely of castings and stampings, which will require the least possible machining or necessity for the construction of refined intertitting parts and which can be assembled and delnounted rapidly with the use of a simple bolt wrench.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a form of cylinder valve which will withstand the wear and severe heat expansions and contractions incidental to valves of this character and which will tend to prevent abnormal heating of the same.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in part obvious from an inspection of the accompanying drawings and in part will be more fully set forth in following particular description of one form of mechanism embodying our invention, and the invention also consists in certain new and novel features of construction and combination of parts hereinafter settorth and claimed.

Referring to the accompanying drawlugs:-

The figure is a sectional view taken axially ot' the driven shaft through one physical embodiment of the invention.

In the following description and in the claims, parts will be identified by specific names for convenience of expression but they are intended to be as generic in their application to similar parts as the art will permit.

In the accompanying drawings, and referring particularly to the casing constituting the body portion of the engine, there is shown a relatively long, substantially cylindrical casting 11 formed, in effect, of three long, circular walls disposed concentrically about the axis a-Z of the main shaft 63 and including an inner wall 14, an intermediate wall 15, and an outer Wall 16. The space between the intermediate wall and the outer wall is divided longitudinally of the axis aZ) to form a plurality of longitudinally extending explosive chambers 17 disposed in a circle about the axis ab. The space hetween-the intermediate wall 15 and the inner wall 14: is divided by means of a radial partition 18 to form two annular gas conducting passageways 19 and 20. The passagewa l9 constitutes a means for conductmg fuel to the several explosive chan'ibers. The passageway 20 constitutes a conduit for discharging the burnt gases from the explosive chambers.

The portions of the casting walls outlining the explosive chambers are provided with a plurality of water cooling chambers 23, preferably connected with some suitable form of water coolingradiator. Special etfort is thus made to cool the hot portions of the engine and the other portions are aircooled, thus tending to lighten the structure by omitting the water-jacketing of parts which do not develop high temperatures.

The portion of the intermediate wall 15, facing each of the explosive chambers 17, is provided longitudinally with a pair of ports, one port 24 providing communication between the fuel conducting passageway 19 and the explosive chamber, and the other part .similarly providing communication between the explosive chamber and the exhaust gas passageway 20.

It will be understood in the following description, in referring to the piston cylinders, pistons, valves and associated parts, that such parts are largely disposed symmetrically on opposite sides of a perpendicular medial plane indicated by the line ccZ intersecting the casting along the plane of the partition 18. Describing the parts at the left hand side of Figure 1, simply for convenience oi identification, the port 24 is provided with an outwardly facing collar 2? ground on its outer-face to form a valve seat threaded into the casting and readily removed therefrom as hereinafter described.

The valve 2. is a radially movable poppet valve, normally rests upon said seat to close communication with the passageway 19 and is provided with a relatively long stem 28 which extends through the port andinto the tubular valve actuating mechanism containing space within the outlines of the inner wall 14:. The stem is slidably mounted in a long guiding sleeve 29, in turn demountably positioned in a carrying sleeve 30, constituting an integral part of the casting and projecting outwardly and into the passageway 19 from the inner wall 1 1.

A bolt 31 extends axially through the stem, is providedcon its inner end with a bearing head 32 and engages at its outer end on a wearing nut or plate 33 having a snug fit in a recess countersunk centrally in the outer face 34 of the valve. This construction provides two rings of radially extending valves positioned in transverse planes on opposite sides of the plane 0-cZ and positioned relatively close together so that the intake. and discharge ports of each chamber 17 are disposed in juxta-position.

The outer all 16 of the casing is provided with a ring of openings 35, one of said openings facing each of the ports 24. These openings have a diameter sufiiciently large to permit ready access to the valve. its seat or guiding sleeve for the purpose of grinding the seat or removing the several parts.

The opening 35 is closed by means of a hollow, outwardly open pressed metal cap 36, designed to be screwed into the opening and for this purpose is provided with slots 37 for receiving the screwing tool. The closing cap is provided centrally thereof with an outwardly extending plunger guiding sleeve 38 which provides the additional function of spacing a spring housing 39 outwardly beyond. the outlines of the casting. A plunger 40 is slidably mounted in the sleeve spring engaging head ll, positioned within 38 and is provided at one end with a the housing 39, and at its opposite end with a blunt bearing end 42 designed to press centrally on the wearing nut 33 to force the valve onto its seat when released from the lifting action of the cam controlled valve unseating means hereinafter described. A coiled spring 43 is housed within the casing 39 and bears on the plunger head ll to naintain the plunger in bearing engage ment with the valve in all positions of the same. The valve housing 39 is provided with a plurality of outwardly extending fins 44 designed to cool the housing and thus withdrawing heat from the cap and tending to air-cool the portion of the explosive chamber not cooled by the water-jacketed walls hereinbefore described. It will be understood that the closing cap, together with the spring pressed plunger and its housing, can be removed as a unit simply by unscrewing the cap thus providing ready access to any particular valve. The hollow construction of the cap and the outsetting of the spring housing tends to maintain the cap relatively cold so that it can be readily removed while the engine is inactive but the heat incidental to the explosions acts to expand the body of the cap exposed to the explosive chamber and thus tend to force the inner part of the cap into a gas-tight connection with the casting.

Piston cylinders 45 are screwed into longitudinal annular flanges 46, constituting an integral part of the casting and extending in alignment from opposite ends of each explosive chamber and in effect are continuations of the outer and inner walls and pistons 124 are slidably mounted therein.

The control mechanism for controlling the fuel admitting-and exhaust-gas discharging valves include a relatively long and strong cam sleeve 133 rotatably mounted upon the straight portions 63' of the shaft. As is shown in our Patent No. 1,355,484, granted October 12, 1920, this sleeve is provided with a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart peripheral bearing cams 134. The cams on opposite sides of the medial plane ccl are operatively connected by mechanism forming no part of the present disclosure to actuate respectively the fuel inlet controlling valves and the exhaust controlling valves on their respective sides in proper sequence to control the successive admission of fuel to the explosive chambers in their proper timed sequence and to correspondingly control the exhaust valves so as to exhaust the spent gases from the explosive chamber as is usual in such types of internal combustion engines.

The parts are so arranged that a cam 13 1 rotates into engagement with its correlated projection 1 10 and acts therethrough to unseat the valve against the tension of its reseating spring 41.

Having thus described our invention, we claim 1. In a device of the class described, the combination of'an explosive chamber having a port in one side thereof, a valve for controlling said port, said valve provided with a stem, means engaging the stem for guiding the valve to and from its seat, means engaging the stem for moving the valve in 1 one direction d its seat, the side of the valve opposite the stem provided centrally thereof with a recess, a wearing nut positioned in said recess, means for securing the nut clamped to the valve, and a spring l pressed plunger bearing on said wearing nut to force the valve onto its seat.

2. In a device of the class described, the combination of an explosive chamber having a port in one side thereof, a valve for 39 :xaid port provided with a guiding stem, a bolt extending through said stem and valve, one end of said bolt being exposed to form "a bearing for the engagement therewith of valve unseating mechanism, a readily removable wearing nut positioned on said valve at the opposite end of the bolt and a s1 ring pressed plunger extending across said *rnlosive chamber and bearing on said wear- 1 nut to force the valve in the opposite 351 direction back onto its seat.

2-3. In a device of the class described, the combination of a casting provided with an explosive chamber having a port in one side thereof, a long guiding sleeve screwed into casting, a valve for said portguided in said sleeve, a removable bolt extending through said valve and having a bearing head at one end and wearing nut at the other, means en aging said bearing head to move the valve in one direction relative to its feet and means engaging the wearing nut to move the valve in the opposite direction.

a. In a device of the class described, the combination of an explosive chamber having a port in one side thereof, a valve for said port, a removable bolt extending through said valve and having a bearing head at one end and wearing nut at the other, means engaging said bearing head to move the valve in one direction relative to its seat and means engaging the wearing nut to move the valve in the opposite direction, said valve and bolt with its wearing nut being removable as a unit from said valve moving means.

5. In a device of the class described, the

combination of an engine casing provided with an opening, a valve facing said opening, a hollow outwardly open cap screwed into said opening, said cap provided eentrally thereof with an outwardly extending plunger guiding sleeve, a spring housing carried at the outer end of said'sleeve and thus spaced from the cap, a spring in said housing and a plunger guided in said sleeve and pressed by the spring into bearing engagement with the valve having substantially all of its outer side exposed to the coo-ling effect of the outside air.

6. In a device of the class described, the combination of an engine casing having a hot chamber provided with an opening, a thin metal cap for closing said opening, a spring housing position exteriorly of the outlines of the casing and removed from the cap, a spacing sleeve between the cap and housing, a valve controlling plunger slidably mounted in the sleeve with one end in the housing and the other end extending into the hot chamber.

7. In a device of the class described, the combination of an engine casing having an opening, a closure for said opening including a hollow cup, a sleeve projecting outwardly from the bottom of the cup and a valve controlling plunger extending through the sleeve and a spring housing provided with heat radiating fins carried by the sleeve in spaced relation to the cup.

8. In a device of the class described, the combination with an engine casing having a hotchamber provided with an opening, of an air cooled closure therefore, including a thin metal cap with one side facing the hot chamber and the other side exposed to the outside air, a valve controlling plunger extending through the closing cup and a guiding sleeve therefore, said plunger and guiding sleeve presenting a relatively small cross-sectional area to the hot chamber compared to the corresponding area of the cup. This specification signed and witnessed this 7th day of October, 1920.

ALBERTO LLEO. GLAUDIO BARADAT. 

